You Can Never Go Home Again
by D.L. SchizoAuthoress
Summary: It's hard to be a Hero who doesn't belong anywhere. UPDATED: 8.25.03 Companion piece to The Watcher, please read that story first.


A/N: I have decided to try fitting this fanfic into a greater work, and so, the basic facts of this 'Zelda-verse' will be changing. Link is sent back to the year he was frozen in time (2280 H.C. according to www.zeldauniverse.net) at the end of the 'Imprisoning War' of "Ocarina of Time." His adventures in Termina take place in 2281 H.C.--Hyrulian Chronology--and then this fanfic happens, in 2287 H.C.   
  
No changes have been made to the actual text. I just realized that my original basis for this fanfic was completely screwed, and it didn't have any right to be associated with "The Watcher," my first LoZ one-shot.  
  
****  
  
"You Can Never Go Home Again"  
  
(a legend of zelda fic by SchizoAuthoress)  
  
He was a Hylian. He knew it now, and he tried to live as a Hylian. But something...something ancient and powerful was pulling him away from that life.  
  
It had been so very painful to learn that he was not a Kokiri, as he had been led to believe for ten years of his life. To learn that he would grow old, and older, and still older...and then die. He would die while the forest folk lived on in peace and childlike innocence until they became tired of life and walked with the Triad out of this world.  
  
And yet there was something inside him that kept pulling him toward that pain, toward that place with all the memories.  
  
Kokiri Forest.  
  
****  
  
A roan filly bearing a blond Hylian clad in clothes of pale yellow and rich dark blue approached the boundary of the Kokiri Forest. The Hylian dismounted and gave the horse a gentle pat on the neck, whispering,  
  
"Go on, now, Epona. Back to Lon Lon with you."  
  
Epona nickered softly and nudged Link with her satiny nose. Then she turned and galloped away, leaving Link alone at the edge of the forest.  
  
As he entered the huge hollow log connecting the forest with the rest of Hyrule, his booted footsteps sounded unnaturally loud. Perhaps because he was heavier, or perhaps because he walked with the weighted step of a warrior. It is a tread that stays with anyone who has ever had a tremendous burden upon their shoulders, and who has had to fight for a cause of importance. Link had acquired this distinctive tread at the tender age of ten, and had walked with it ever since.  
  
He crossed the rope bridge in silence, as he usually was. And then he came into the forest.  
  
****  
  
As he sat in meditation beside the slowly growing new Deku Tree, the Leader of the Kokiri smiled. To his faerie Tiru, he murmured,  
  
"The boy is back."  
  
Tiru flitted about his master and shrilled, "Shall I bring him to you?"  
  
"No. Let him find me." Mido opened his eyes. "When the sun sets, the Solstice begins."  
  
****  
  
"Stranger!" This call came from a young Kokiri boy who Link did not know. He stared at the dark-haired child and asked gruffly,   
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"You ask what I want to ask! Tell first, stranger, and I'll tell second!"  
  
Somehow, the teasing and playfulness of the unfamiliar little boy grated on Link. He drew himself up to his full height and growled in his 'Hero' voice, "I am Link, the Hero of Time!"  
  
The boy's eyes widened. He gasped breathlessly, "And I...am...Habo. I must...I must find Kilent." And he ran off.  
  
Kilent was known to Link. The Kokiri professed himself to be a Know-It-All, like his brothers. And now that he thought of it, Habo did resemble Kilent in a way...  
  
****  
  
Kilent laughed long when he heard the news of Link's entrance from Habo. He hugged the little boy and teased gently, "Now you see why strangers are not spoken to, my little Habo-kao."  
  
The boy nodded fearfully and whispered, "Go see him, please, Kilent-tou."  
  
"That I will," Kilent said gravely. He found Link sitting on a tree stump with Navi ducking in and out from under his blue cap. The Kokiri bowed and greeted him with, "Welcome once again, Link-tiri."[1]  
  
"Kilent." Link answered softly, with a tiny smile.  
  
The familiar Kokiri smiled softly in return, not the playful and arrogant grin that Link remembered, but a different, more knowing smile with sadness in the eyes. He sat cross-legged beside Link's tree stump and stated, "You've come back."  
  
With a sigh, Link inquired, "Am I truly welcome, Kilent-tiri? Or will you tell me that Hylians do not belong here?"  
  
"Hylians that frighten my son by acting like big, scary Stal'kaon are welcomed with some reluctance." Kilent answered almost tonelessly. Link stared at him in surprise.  
  
"Your son?" He asked, unable to form a more complete thought than that. Kilent laughed.  
  
"Yes, my son. Six Solstices old, never seen the outside world."  
  
Link countered, "Neither have you."  
  
Kilent nodded. "Not as you have, Link-tiri, but in dreams and during meditations." He reached up and patted Link's knee. "You have forgotten the things Mido-saddsu [2] told you, long ago."  
  
"Long ago? When was this?"  
  
Kilent's eyes narrowed as he did the mental calculations. He looked up into Link's face and pronounced, "Twenty eight Solstices past, fourteen years ago, when you were...three years old, Hylian-age." He looked at Link with more interest. "In the outside world, you must have seen many strange and wonderous things. You have had no room in your head to keep close the knowledge of the Kokiri race."  
  
Link stood. "I wish to see Mido. Will you take me to him, Kilent-tiri?"  
  
****  
  
Kilent did not take Link to Mido's house in the village, but rather to the narrow rift leading to the Deku Tree Clearing. The Know-It-All Brother, however, seemed to disappear as they were coming into the clearing.  
  
Link did not see Mido, but rather a tall and slender young man with long brown hair, clothed in a dark green robe. The man's back was to Link as he said,  
  
"Wearu Deku-kabe nameio siylapa...The Deku Tree-sprout grows well."  
  
Link approached carefully, and replied just as carefully, "Yes, it does..."  
  
"Link-tiri, you do not know me?" The man asked sorrowfully. Link paused. The voice, something in the voice was so awfully, terribly familiar...  
  
"Mido...?" Link breathed. He trembled. There was something, something, he didn't know what...trying to come to the surface of his thoughts. But this revelation fought paradoxically with everything that was supposed to hold true about the forest folk...  
  
"Yes. It is I." The man who had been Mido the child turned around. He looked as though he had just finished crying for a long time.  
  
Link choked out, "What? How?" before his legs gave way beneath him and he sat there on the grass in confused silence. Mido came forward and touched his shoulder.  
  
"Forget all that you think you have learned about the Kokiri. I tell you the truth, my friend, believe this." Link nodded mutely. Mido sighed and said softly, "Tonight begins the Summer Solstice. For nine nights and days, the Kokiri will show their true ages."  
  
"The trinity of trinities..." Link whispered. Mido smiled.  
  
"You remember. What else comes?"  
  
Link furrowed his brow and thought hard. An image was coming to him, a memory...  
  
****  
  
Mido and a younger Link--about three years old--sat together on the circle of rocks near Mido's house in the village. Other young Kokiri, all appearing to be the same age as Link, were also seated on the rocks, with Mido in the center.  
  
"You must remember," Mido instructed gently, "that to leave the forest means that you can never come back. The person who you are is dead. We will welcome you back, of course, for that is our way. But you will never be the same. The forest will no longer be enough for you, and you will leave us again, eventually."  
  
****  
  
"The forest will no longer be enough..." Link murmured. He gazed up at Mido and cried, "Why did you let me go? Don't you know that I don't belong out there? And now I don't belong here, either!"  
  
Mido knelt in front of the Hylian and hugged him tightly around the shoulders. He whispered roughly, "If there was ever anything I wanted, it was to keep you safe and happy. But you are the One, Link. Your way is fraught with peril and pain. You will need to fight for happiness and security. Even," Mido pressed his right hand to Link's heart, "if it is within yourself."  
  
Link dropped his head to Mido's shoulder and whimpered pathetically, "Why me?"  
  
"Oh, Link," Mido sighed, stroking the young man's blond hair, "to change your destiny would be to make the burden fall upon someone else. Though I could have done such a thing, I had no way of knowing whether the person who would embark upon the quest to save this land could do so. I had faith in you. I still have complete faith in you, child. You are stronger than any of the Gharit Mamohn te R'tikan."  
  
"Stronger than the Great Army of the Forests of legend?" Link repeated.  
  
Mido smiled. "Yes, child. You are your own legend."  
  
****  
  
They entered the village together. The faces that Link recognized were those of the older Kokiri. The still small, true children-Kokiri were unfamiliar. All were gathered in the central area of the village, and all cleared a path for Mido and his companion as they approached.  
  
"The Hero of Time, our kin by sacred oath, Link. He has returned to us from the forbidden outside world, which he only ventured into by destiny's pull. He is welcomed once more." Mido announced. A great cheer arose from all the people of the village.  
  
Dosha and Rekei, the twins, embraced him immediately. Kilent and his brothers laughed and joked among themselves about how a Hero attracted the pretty girls all for himself. Saria ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek, whispering in his ear,  
  
"I've missed you, Link-tiri. I'm glad you're back, for however long."  
  
Link gazed around. The isolated place of his youth was so small in comparison to the wide world beyond its borders. A sameness and a dark ancientness permeated it. But here was happiness and safety. And love. He looked to Mido, to Saria.  
  
And love. So he would try to live here; there was no chain or shackles upon him to stay. But he would, for as long as he needed to.  
  
Even though it would never be his true home again.  
  
END  
  
[1] -kao means 'child'; -tou means 'parent'; -tiri means 'friend.'  
  
[2] means 'leader'. The full title is Saddsu te Kokiri, 'Leader of the Kokiri' 


End file.
